From onboard navigation systems to online navigation and mapping websites, users have virtually unlimited resources when it comes to obtaining driving directions. For example, in their personal vehicle, they can be given turn-by-turn directions to a selected destination and can be provided with a map display of their current location as they proceed along. For those who plan ahead, directions can be obtained and trips can be planned from the Internet or other computer program according to selected start and end points. Despite the many conveniences that both of these conventional techniques provide, they tend to be more problematic and restrictive in use. For instance, such conventional systems rely on and in most cases require address input in order to determine a reasonable set of driving directions. Otherwise, the midpoint of the end destination or beginning point is used. So if a user selects Los Angeles, Calif. as the end destination, conventional systems provide directions to about the midpoint of the city, which is probably not useful considering the size of the city.
Furthermore, conventional routing systems tend to assume that the user can travel from start to finish using the same means of transportation which in some cases may not be true. Oftentimes, these systems also fail to account for travel delays such as road construction or traffic volumes and rather focus only on the route.